LFB 1/2009 - Ros Casares 87, Hondarribia 62

Maria Sanchez-Aguilera looks on at the LFB MVP, Erika de Souza.

For defending LFB champion Ros Casares (1-0), it looks like business as usual - 20 point victories over just about every team in the Liga Femenina excpet for maybe Perfumerias. At home in Valencia, El Ros had complete control over visiting Hondarribia (0-1) and cruised to a 87-62 victory.

The box score is here. A gallery of photos is right here, complements of Superdeporte.es.

Ros Casares had a 23-15 lead after 10 minutes but turned up the heat in the second quarter by holding Hondarribia to just seven second-quarter points on the way to a 44-22 halftime lead. (Hondarribia seemed to have thrown in the towel in the second quarter.) The lead was almost 30 points at the end of the third quarter, 69-40. Hondarribia won the fourth quarter, but it was only a moral victory.

Erika de Souza and Belinda Snell each broke the 20 point barrier - a great debut for Snell in her first LFB game.

Let's look at Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting: Ros Casares 53 percent, Hondarribia 43 percent.
Turnovers: Ros Casares 19, Hondarribia 26. Wow. Must have been a difficult game to watch.
Offensive rebound percentage: Ros Casares 37.9 percent, Hondarribia 18.7 percent. Erika de Souza had 5 of Ros Casares's 11 offensive rebounds.
Free throws: Hondarribia 12-for-19, Ros Casares 8-for-12 - the 19 free throw visits are the price for a phyical game.

And now the highlights:

Ros Casares

Erika de Souza: 21 points and 10 rebounds: The only double-double of the game.
Belinda Snell: 22 points, and 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Snell, with the WNBA's Silver Stars, hits about 31 percent of her 3-pointers normally.
Anna Montanana: 4 points, but 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
Amaya Valdemoro: 3 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists.
Delisha Milton-Jones: 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 turnovers.

Note: Every name in bold above has a WNBA pedigree. Ros Casares could hang with any WNBA team.

Hondarribia

Katja Bavendam: 16 points, 8 rebounds, 5 turnovers, 4 personal fouls.
Maria Sanchez-Aguilera: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 5 turnovers.
Helena Santos Luz: 5 points, 4 turnovers.